The achievement gap in Kentucky's education

The achievement gap in Kentucky’s education

By TREY SMALLWOOD Backpage Editor

This week, the Commonwealth of Kentucky released its newest set of test score data on the Kentucky Department of Education’s website. The data that was released observed how schools were ranked based on the previous year’s state assessment.

While I could write about how ridiculous their new ranking system is, I am going to refrain this time. However, I would like to address that results of these scores show the achievement gap is a relevant issue in our education system.

For those who don’t know, an achievement gap is a disparity in academic performance between groups of students. Some politicians debate whether or not this actually exists in our public schools, but most educators acknowledge its existence.

What made me want to write this piece was when I pulled up the results from my home district, Montgomery Co.. Let me share those results with you.

Novice is the lowest category that a student can score. The percent of white students who scored novice in reading was 22%. The percent of black students who scored novice in reading was 42.9%. While math does not have as servere of a gap, a similar gap is present between white and black students, demonstrating an achievement gap (education. ky.gov).

So I thought, maybe my old high school just had a problem. Unfortunately this is not the case. The elementary schools in Montgomery Co. showed similar data. I looked up Scott Co.’s high school and found almost identical data. I found even bigger gaps in Lexington High Schools, so unfortunately this is not an isolated issue.

You may be asking yourself, “how is this?” Don’t these students receive the same education, sit in the same classrooms, and have the same teachers? While the answer to these questions are yes, the achievement gap is still evident.

While the reasons for this gap in our education system are not abundantly clear, educators and the broader society have to recognize that this gap is a problem. Once this gap is recognized, we can began addressing it more directly.

The state is doing a little bit of this by declaring that some schools need specific, targeted help. This help may come in giving them programs to help specific groups. Clearly, we do not know the solution as of now. However, if we acknowledge the problem, we may still be able to close the achievement gap and mend our education system.